Health and safety responsibilities of Directors

Consultation ended 9 March 2001

Preface
In June last year the Health and Safety Commission and the Government launched the "Revitalising Health and Safety" Strategy Statement. The Statement included a commitment by the Commission to develop a code of practice on Directors' responsibilities for health and safety, in conjunction with stakeholders.

The attached draft code (comprising a brief introduction, five action points, a reading list and an Annex summarising the legal responsibilities for health and safety) is issued for the consideration of stakeholders in the health and safety system.

The code will be prefaced by the standard introductory paragraph for HSC guidance, as follows:

"This guidance is issued by the Health and Safety Commission. Following the guidance is not compulsory and you are free to take other action. But if you follow the guidance you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law. Health and safety inspectors seek to secure compliance with the law and may refer to this guidance as illustrating good practice."

The code is not intended to be an Approved Code of Practice under Section 16 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Notes on the consultation procedure
The Commission tries to make its consultation procedure as thorough and open as possible. Responses to this consultative document will be lodged in the Health and Safety Executive's Information Centres after the close of the consultation period where they can be inspected by members of the public or be copied to them on payment of the appropriate fee to cover costs.

Responses to this consultative document are invited on the basis that anyone submitting them agrees to their being dealt with in this way. Responses, or parts of them, will be withheld from the Information Centres only at the express request of the person making them. In such cases a note will be put in the index to the responses identifying those who have commented and have asked that their views, or part of them, be treated as confidential.

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